Rats in my Truck

[RichZ]

Alan, as usual the TBN brain trust is right. Mothballs will drive them out. And bait traps with peanut butter, I never heard of Bird's trick, but I've never known him to give bad advice, so I'm sure that will work, too. Whatever you do, though, don't use rat poison. If they die in your truck, they will stink, and you may never get the smell out. Much worse than the mothballs!!

 

[mikim]

I use moth balls to keep skunks out too - and so far it seems to be working - I use 'em in a shed where they had a bad habit of nesting til I added the moth balls one winter.
mike

 

[Golfgar4]

I guess a lot of people have similar stories. Mine involved a rat getting into the motor of an old chest freezer I have in my garage. I discovered one day that the freezer wasn't running, so I pulled it away from the wall to check the motor and found the "body" stuck between the drive belt and the pulley. YUCK!/w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif

The peanut butter does work well, but I've also found that the little buggers like Beeman's gum just as much! The only problem with that is trying to FIND Beeman's gum anymore./w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif

 

[Old_Wanker]

Now that Ive picked myself up from the floor from laughing so hard (laughing with you mind) ... Id say get some cats. I had all manner of problems that I solved with the farm cats that now live in the garage. As long as you dont mind picking up the dead critters they will bring you on almost a daily basis and throwing them out. My wife doesnt like that one bit.

 

[TonyC]

<font color=blue>"Officer, did you see that big rat that jumped out of the car when I opened the door?"</font color=blue>

I have several similar stories of my own involving boats. As you might imagine mice and snakes like to bed down in all of the various hiding places of a boat. Of course they love to come out when you get underway. This has produced several man and woman overboard situations in my time. It's tough getting them out too as of course they immediately go back to their hiding place when you try to catch them. The snakes are always non-poisonous black snakes fortunately. We did get lucky once when our neighbors were driving behind us to go to the lake. They called on my cell phone to advise me that a six foot long snake was hanging over he side of the boat. It was a big one for sure. I must say that I'm glad that he left the trip early. Non-poisonous or not, that's too big to find crawling across your feet while driving a boat 55 miles and hour!!!

 

[cowboydoc]

When I bought my new car a few years ago I sold the old one myself. I let it sit for a few months before I got around to selling it. Went to start it and get it cleaned up to sell and right there on the seat was a snake skin! I never found the snake but he must have been in there. Don't know how else that snake skin would have gotten on the seat.

 

[Alan L.]

By rat standards they weren't that big. Probably large field mice - about 4" long not counting the tail. Apparently not big enough to set off the rat trap. During the night somebody stole the cheese from the trap and it didn't go off!

I had heard of peanut butter being good for mouse traps, but I didn't have any so I resorted to the cheese. I do have bacon however and will try that tonight. And I might throw some moth balls in there to show them how unwelcome they are.

We do have a cat, but unfortunately she is old and blind doesn't chase mice anymore.

Now had it been a SKUNK I'm sure I would have ruint my Haines. Another good reason for moth balls.

This is not the only varmint encounter since we moved into the metal building in December of 2000. A month or two ago we had a possum take up residence in the space between the living quarters and the outside wall of the metal building. That rascal show his teeth and really got mad when we tried to coax him out with a stick. My wife thought it was funny when my son and I, grown men, were standing up on ladders and 5-gallon buckets while we prodding him with the stick. But I didn't want that thing climbing up MY leg!!

My son, home for the weekend, read up on ways to get rid of them on the internet. Basically, make a trail of catfood from the hiding place to the outside door where you want him to go out. Then sprinkle flour right outside his hiding place that he has to walk over if he comes out. The next morning, if the tracks only come out and don't go back int, then he's gone. It worked like a charm!

 

[justractors]

Hate to urinate on your parade but since you live way down south you may have a bigger problem than you think.
Up here in the Frozen North outdoor pets and such don't start breeding until a little later but down there if those two rats have been hein' and shein' already you may have a litter of little rats in that truck's heater/air conditioning system.
If you kill or run off mom and pop the little rats will surely expire and they do stink quite badly when dead especially when you turn on the blower fan and that smell swats you in the face.
Back in the early 60s at the age of about 11 or 12 I was getting some grain for the cattle out of a 55 gallon drum with a grain scoop and three or four of the big farm rats ran up my arm to get out of the barrel that someone had forgotten to put the lid on. They looked about two feet long and I still have nightmares about that. It also taught me the value of a good barn cat.
Better you than me even with the best outcome.
Good luck.
Bill

 

[gerard]

Went to a presentation a few weeks ago and the presenter, from Arizona, was telling me how he recently had not ingratiated himself with his wife by NOT fixing the flap on the dryer vent that had broken. Seems she went to throw a load of wash in and there was a 6 foot rattler in the dryer! She turned it on and let it run for about 45 minutes, hearing the clunk clunk clunk. Turned it off and waited and saw the thing crawl back out the vent and go away! He said he fixed it the day he got home from his trip!! GIVE ME THE RATS ANYDAY /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[TonyC]

<font color=blue>...and right there on the seat was a snake skin!</font color=blue>

I don't doubt that for a second. There are a lot of Black snakes around here and they pick the darndest places to shed their skin. I'm always finding them, sometimes in spots that I can't even figure how they got into at all. Slippery as a snake I guess!